Feferi was pacing around in her castle as Princess Kris stroked The Sollux Beast's head gently, watching her curiously.
"M'Lady, may I ask what your doing?"
She spoke up, The Sollux Beast coiling his tail around Kris' legs and rubbing his head against her hand. Feferi continued to look down and watch her paced footsteps.
"I'm a bit concerned..."
Princess Kris spoke up. Feferi sighed and walked over to her.
"Kris... It's not as important as you might be thinking. I've been thinking about this NON STOP!"
Feferi said, flailing her arms up and down, pouting.
"M'Lady, please, confide in me."
Princess Kris said with a bit of concern in her voice.
"It's about Eridan."
"What about Eridan?"
"I just... I )(ave to go ask )(im..."
Feferi said, running out of her castle in tears. Princess Kris stared at her, a bit perplexed at what just occured.
"Come on, Sollux, lets go follow the Heiress."
She said. The Sollux Beast uncoiled his tail from her legs and slithered out the door after Kris. Feferi walked over to the shore and jumped in, hoping to find Eridan.
"Eridan?"
Feferi yelled, looking around. A webbed hand crawled onto her shoulder and she gasped, quickly turning around, noticing it was only Eridan.
"Oh... Eridan! I didn't see you there~! Glub!"
She said, tilting her head to the side and smiling broadly. Eridan stared into her eyes, but soon gave a faint chuckle.
"yeah its...its just me..."
"Eri~? Is there something the matter? You seem... Sad!"
She said, stroking his left arm.
"it has to do wwith dualscar"
"Dualscar~? What about him?"
"wwell... hes ya knoww, 'himself' again"
Eridan began, pointing to his sea monster additions.
"and wwell... he keeps sayin a wwars gonna start betwween evvery creature. land and sea."
Feferi's eyes widened.
"WHAT?! Reely?!"
Eridan nodded slowly, his frown growing larger.
"hes gettin my brother as a last resort. 'parently hes sorta vvicious and man eatin sometimes. i nevver imagined cro bein that wway. EVVER. but i guess thats howw things are... but i dont wwant cro back. it wwas all dads idea makin him a landwweller in the first place. if he cant decide wwhich-"
"Shhhh... Eridan... Calm down."
Feferi interupted, a bit of fear in her eyes from the description of 'cro'.
"Who is this 'Cro' person you speak of~?"
"cro? hes my brother. cronus."
"CRONUS?! Y-You mean... He's one TOO?! AND HE NEVER TOLD ME?!"
Feferi shouted, hypervelliating.
"shush fef your freakin the fish out includin me. noww, wwhere is cro?"
"He's at the castle..."
Eridan took something out of his cape and gave it to Feferi, closing her hand.
"make sure no one sees this. hide this from my father. if he finds you wwith it, youll be nothing but dinner."
Eridan said with pity in his eyes. Feferi nodded and swam back to the top, running back to the castle. The Psionic Beast watched her from the shadows and hissed, crossing his arms and slithering back to his cave.
"KRIS!"
Feferi screamed, The Sollux Beast quickly slithered off to his bed and curled his tail over himself, staring at Feferi in confusion.
"M'Lady! What is the matter?"
"It's Cronus..."
Feferi said panting.
"What about the Prince?"
Kris asked, a look of concern in her olive eyes. Feferi looked up at her, eyes watering up.
"He's one too...!"
She said, clinging onto the Princess' shoulders. Kris immediately began to rub her back and shush pap her.
"Shhhh... It's alright... What about Cronus that makes it seem such a distress?"
Feferi broke away from to tight grasp she was giving Kris and unclenched her fist, exposing the strangely shaped syringe. Kris' eyes widened.
"What... IS that? It surely is not human... At least I sure hope it's not~"
"It's for Cronus, I think. There wouldn't be any other reason for it. Eridan told me to keep it away from Dualscar. He said if he found me with it... I'd be better off dead."
Kris was speechless.
"This is a crisis! Do you wish for me to get Cronus?"
"No! Not now! He's Dualscar's last resort! Apparently, more beasts are coming to our lands, and soon, they will overpower US!"
Kris gasped,
"Impossible! But when will we know when Dualscar needs Cronus?"
"He said when the time comes... I guess when more of the creatures come-"
Feferi's sentence was interupted with an abrupt blast of flames and screaming.
"What was that?!"
Princess Kris said, running towards the balcony, Feferi following. The two of them looked down at the town and saw a large female dragon that nearly was the size of the entire village below them. Feferi stared at the dragon wide eyed and immediately had an idea to who it could be.
"Kris! I think it's Neophyte Redglare! BUT A DRAGON!"
Feferi screamed, trying to make sure Kris heard her through all the screaming and crackling of flame.
"Should we get Cronus?!"
"NOT. YET!"
Feferi yelled. A ferocious hiss came from the forest and The Psionic beast slithered out of the forest, making the dragon freeze.
"It's him!"
Feferi said with alot of emphasis on the word 'him'. Kris looked down to see The Psionic beast standing in front of the dragon, his fangs exposed. Kris wasn't entirely sure if The Psionic Beast was trying to help them or eat the dragon for dinner, but she soon figured it out when The Psionic Beast was thwaped towards the shore, which was roughly 2 miles away. Kris tapped Feferi's shoulder quickly
"I'm getting Cronus"
and ran off to find him. Feferi sat at her throne, trying to be brave, but soon bursts into tears.
"I can't handle all of this!"
She said, squealing into her hands. The Sollux Beast slithered towards her from his bed and lied his head next to her. She smiled, sniffling a bit, and patted his head gently. On the other hand, Kris was running down the stairs at the speed of sound.
"CRONUS!"
She yelled, making sure not to trip on her dress or even heels. She ran past the kitchen and to the water fountain outside, where Cronus was sitting on a bench, flirting with one of the ladies from the village.
"CRONUS! I NEED YOU IMMEDIATELY!"
Kris yelled, running over to Cronus, clutching onto his arm.
"WVhoa wvhoa! WVhat is it?"
Cronus said as Kris dragged him away from the lady he was flirting with and to Feferi's throne room.
"I'll explain when we get there."
Kris said flatly. Cronus' eyes widened,
"This has to do wvith me, doesn't it?"
he said, thinking he was in trouble for flirting with anonymous villagers again.
"M'Lady! I have found Cronus!"
Kris said, stopping in her tracks as she saw Feferi looking down in an angered manner.
"Cronus."
Feferi said, holding her hand up and signalling him to walk over there. Cronus looked at Kris, then back at Feferi, and took a step forward.
"Uhhh... Y-Yeah?"
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Feferi said flatly, grabbing onto the collar of his shirt, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"I COULD HAVE HELPED YOU! BUT NOW IT'S... It's too late...! You're father wants you as a Last Resort... You're only choice is to go back... Why didn't you... tell me...?"
Feferi said, whispering the last sentence faintly, as she began to whimper. Cronus was staring at her, his eyes watering up as well.
"WVell, I-I just... I..."
Feferi pulled Cronus closer to her and shoved the syringe into his vein, his skin already reacting. Cronus' eyes widened as he began to choke on air, clutching onto his throat. His skin grew thinner and more of a violet color than grey, just like Eridan. Fins started to grow onto his arms, going from the elbow down. His fingers grew more spread out as the webbed features sliced through his skin and connected to the tips of his fingers. His eyes began to flicker, and his teeth grew sharper and longer, the point being as sharp as a blade and the length being a finger twice its length. He tried to let out a roar, but he ended up passing out onto the floor, his skin now as slippery as a bar of soap. Feferi stood up and picked up the unconcious body that used to be the Prince, but now was nothing more than a monster. Feferi ran out the door and ran as fast as she could to the water, shouting Eridan's name. She jumped into the water, trying to avoid Cronus, thinking he might quickly swam up to her and grabbed Cronus, trying to prevent contact with his face.
"thank you fef. dad wwas just askin about him."
Eridan said. Feferi gave a nervous smile in exchange and swam back to the top. She stumbled back towards the castle and tripped suddenly over The Psionic Beast. He hissed in pain, making Feferi jump. She stood up and helped The Psionic Beast stand upright. He dusted himself off and scowled, slithering away without a thank you. Feferi watched him slither away and continued to run towards the castle. She ran into Kris suddendly, startling her.
"Oh~"
Kris said, tripping a bit forward.
"Glub~! I'm sorry!"
Feferi said, hugging Kris.
"No, you're okay~"
Kris said, as Feferi broke away from the embrace.
"How's Cronus?"
Kris said, trying not to remember what just happened with the dramatic transformation.
"He's... He's good~"
Feferi said, trying to remain optimistic.
"And the dragon~?"
"The dragon flew to the ocean, where I believe Dualscar lurkes. His sons live in a separate area, yet all bodies of water connect to the same port."
Feferi nodded and walked over to The Sollux Beast.
"I'm sorry you had to see what happened to Cronus."
She said. He blinked a few times and nodded,
"It'222222 all good."
Feferi picked up the syringe from the floor and stared at the blood puddle it lied in, including the blood on the thin needle.
"What one can do with medicinal human usage containers..."
She said, giggling and throwing the syringe away.
"M'Lady, should we evacuate, the grounds are close to-"
Kris was interrupted with the blasting away of the roof. A giant ball of flames burnt through the roof, sending ash and burning debris everywhere.
"LETS RUN!"
Feferi screamed, running down the stairs as Kris followed, running as fast as she could before the entire top floor was nothing but burning wood. The Sollux Beast followed after, of course, trying not to flip off the stairs. Feferi, Kris, and The Sollux Beast looked outside to see nearly the whole kingdom in complete chaos. Feferi was struck with horror.
"How could this happen?!"
"I don't know...! But we better make sure Eridan and Cronus are okay!"
Kris ran to the water and put her hand in it.
"Eridan~"
She said. A webbed hand gripped onto her vein and dragged her in. She screamed, and tried to hold her breath. Cronus growled at her, but Eridan quickly took her away from him. Eridan took Kris back to shore and went back to Cronus. Cronus let out an angry roar and Eridan tried to be brave and stand up for the landweller. Dualscar came shortly after, clutching onto Cronus' neck.
"Now now, we don't want to waste the rage, do we?"
Dualscar said, pulling Cronus towards him. Cronus was growling loudly and trying to get free of his grasp, since his gills were being blocked by his father's grasp.
"you just wwant to engage in this wwar"
Eridan said, standing up to his father. Dualscar stared down at him with an unamused look on his face.
"Eridan, m'lad. You'll understand all of this when you are older."
Kris sat up and gasped for air, coughing a bit. She stared into the woods and saw The Mituna Beast hissing at her in a friendly and supportive manner.
"Oh, Mituna~"
She said, running over to him.
"Do you know where Feferi went?"
Mituna nodded and led Kris to the corner of the town. She was hiding from the flaming houses of the villagers.
"M'Lady! It is not safe out here on our own! We must protect ourselves from the war!"
Kris said, grabbing Feferi's hand.
"Well? What are you waiting for?! We have to leave immediately!"
"I'm not leaving Eridan behind... Not again..."
Feferi said, walking through the chaos, as if an aisle were made for her to walk upon. Centaurs, Dragons, and other creatures were shooting down trees and wildlife, including some of the beasts. Dualscar let go of his son and looked at the chaos above.
"Not yet..."
He said, taking Cronus to a sea cave with metal bars.
"Cronus, I will come get you when the time is right. Sadly to say, I have to leave you in here to starve."
Cronus' eyes widened angrilly and he roared at his father,
"WVHAT THE HECK IS WVRONG WVITH YOU?! YOU PUT ME IN THIS CAGE TO STARVWE ME!? WVHAT A FATHER YOU ARE!"
He shook the bars angrilly and growled. Dualscar turned away, an evil grin on his face, and he swam away.